


how to listen to trees.

by sketchy_and_unformed



Category: Naruto
Genre: But Gai is very good for him :), Fluff, Get Together, I will make this ship name a thing!, M/M, Mighty Oak, Romance, Tenzo gets the love he deserves, Tenzo has minor self-esteem issues, Tenzos Cabin, Whirlwind Romance, because Gai is a force of nature, because apparently I just can't help myself, relationship focused, some smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:14:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28795968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sketchy_and_unformed/pseuds/sketchy_and_unformed
Summary: Falling in love with Maito Gai was probably the most surprising thing that happened to Yamato in his entire life. And he had been grown in a test tube, so that really said a lot.(Rating will go up from chapter 3)
Relationships: Maito Gai | Might Guy/Yamato | Tenzou
Comments: 21
Kudos: 24
Collections: Theme Of The Month Events





	1. How it started

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Tenzō's Cabin Discord January event for the theme 'from seedling to mighty oak'.
> 
> I'm so excited about this fic that I'm doing something unheard of for me and starting to post before I've finished writing it (meep).
> 
> I swear this was supposed to be a oneshot but this pairing has completely stolen my heart 💖 I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it :3

> **"Love is like a tree, it grows of its own accord, it puts down deep roots into our whole being."**
> 
> _― Victor Hugo_

Falling in love with Maito Gai was probably the most surprising thing that happened to Yamato in his entire life. And he had been grown in a test tube, so that really said a lot.

‘Happened’ was also the right word for it; he hadn’t chosen to fall for the other man so much as the feeling had taken him over and left him powerless to do anything but love him. Yamato often compared the beginning of their relationship to being swept out to sea on a powerful tide: slightly terrifying but better to relax and let the waters take him where they would than to try and fight against them. In the end, he’d been greatly rewarded for this act of surrender.

Prior to their romantic involvement, Gai had existed as somebody on the fringes of Yamato’s life. He couldn’t remember ever having spoken to the man before he’d been pulled out of ANBU to take over Team Kakashi, although Gai’s reputation had preceded their official introduction by several years. Kakashi had spoken of him from time to time, his words expressing exasperation but his tone always desperately fond.

“He challenged me to a singing contest just last week,” he had said during one particularly dull Team Ro mission while he and Yamato––then Tenzō––were on night watch together. “I tell you, the man is utterly ridiculous.”

“And?” Yamato had asked. “Who won?”

“Gai did, of course,” Kakashi had replied cheerfully. “You know I can’t sing for toffee.”

In that way Yamato was kept relatively up to date with regards to all of Maito Gai’s fervent challenges to his ‘eternal rival’ (Kakashi, that was).

But then, of course, Kakashi left ANBU and Yamato’s world became rather more quiet for a time, until he was promoted to captain of his own squad and found his hands full with several newly minted soldiers. It was a decade since the end of the Third Great Shinobi War by then and life in ANBU wasn’t nearly as strictly regimented as it had been in his early days, but the rule against fraternising with those outside of the ranks nonetheless held firm so Yamato lost touch with Kakashi completely.

Working with his friend again as first a replacement and later a co-captain, although it started under difficult circumstances, was very welcome. Their camaraderie came back as easily as if they’d never been apart. Kakashi still slouched around with a dirty book either in his hand or tucked securely into his inner pocket, he still frequently ‘forgot’ his wallet when they got lunch together and he was still the tactical genius that Yamato remembered well.

And, it seemed, he was still Maito Gai’s rival. Apparently, eternal really did mean eternal to the green-clad taijutsu master.

As much as Yamato had thought that he knew about Gai from Kakashi’s florid descriptions over the years, a lifetime of anecdotes couldn’t have prepared him for the reality of the man’s towering presence when they at last became acquainted. That descriptor wasn’t at all meant in reference to Gai’s height either, a scant six centimeters more than Yamato’s own.

Their official introduction was a literal running into. Yamato was returning from the market laden down with grocery bags when he hit a wall of solid muscle face-first. His groceries flew off in all directions and time seemed to slow down as he watched the huge, fresh fish he had picked up for Team Kakashi’s bentos that week go somersaulting through the air. It had been expensive. It would have been tasty. Yamato had been looking forward to steaming it with some ginger and lemon. It had also been intended as a sort of bribe to get the kids to like him, in follow-up to their lavish day at the hot springs. He started to mourn the loss of his lunch and the lightness of his wallet, his shoulders dropping in resignation as he watched the food begin to fall to the ground.

A whirl of green almost knocked him off of his feet along with the groceries. He staggered and then, before he could understand exactly what was happening, a full paper bag was thrust into his arms.

On top of his other purchases lay the silvery fish, completely unharmed. It had never touched the ground.

Yamato looked around him to try and comprehend the narrowly averted calamity and was met with the widest, whitest grin he had ever seen.

“Please accept my most humble apologies!” Gai boomed, leaning forward as he spoke (a gesture wholly unnecessary given the volume of his voice).

Yamato blinked. “That’s quite alright, ah…”

“Oh! Introductions must be made! My name, of course, is Maito Gai!”

Gai, who had the rest of Yamato’s groceries toted against one cocked hip (all perfectly bagged after being snatched from midair in a stunning display of speed that Yamato hadn’t been able to track with his eyes), stuck out his hand. Yamato took the hand gingerly and his arm was pumped so vigorously that he almost dropped his own bag.

“Yamato,” he said in response to Gai’s hearty introduction. “I understand you’re Kakashi-senpai’s friend.”

“Ah, of course! The most treasured kohai of my most esteemed rival!” Gai beamed at him. “It’s truly an honour to finally meet you, Yamato-san! Kakashi has spoken most highly of you!”

“He has?” Yamato’s cheeks coloured. “O-oh.”

“You must allow me to make amends for almost spoiling your most precious groceries through my lack of attention!” Gai proclaimed, thrusting a finger towards the sky; Yamato wondered what on Earth could be up there for him to point at. “I am on my way home from a most invigorating sparring session with my students, you see, and the fire of youth still burns hot in my blood! I was not paying due mind to my surroundings!”

“The fire of…” Yamato repeated faintly. “Um. It’s quite alright. No harm done, after all.”

Gai abruptly dropped to his knees and clasped Yamato’s hand, which he had never let go of, between his own. “I must insist! Please allow Maito Gai the great honour and privilege of treating Yamato-san to dinner!”

“I’ve already eaten,” Yamato said awkwardly.

Gai’s eyes were wide and hopeful. “A drink, then! Or tea? I know the finest tea house in Konoha, it is not far from here!” He grinned his megawatt grin again. “I would very much enjoy the opportunity to learn more about the bosom buddy of my eternal rival!”

“Bosom buddy?” Yamato spluttered, blushing so hard he was almost purple.

The grin didn’t dim even for a second. “I’m afraid I will not take no for an answer,” Gai said.

People around them had started to murmur at the sight of the green giant kneeling in the middle of the street. Yamato gave in.

“Alright. Tea would be nice. But I have to put these groceries away first.”

“Then I shall offer my assistance!” Gai said, springing to his feet. To Yamato’s surprise––and horror––he offered his arm.

Yamato had a sinking feeling that the eccentric man would not be refused. With gritted teeth, he looped his arm around Gai’s elbow.

“Lead the way, my friend!” Gai exclaimed cheerfully, and off they set.

At first, Yamato found Gai confusing, overwhelming and, in a way, deeply uncomfortable to be around. He understandably put all of this down to the other man’s unadulterated and unrelenting exuberance, so strikingly unlike what Yamato liked to think of as his own quiet pragmatism. He didn’t consider himself a pessimist, oh no, but rather a realist. He hoped for the best and expected the worst.

For Gai, however, any outcome was the best of all possible outcomes.

“I praise my good fortune in encountering Yamato-san on such a fine day as today,” he enthused as they ducked and dodged around each other in Yamato’s small kitchen. “I have been hoping, since I heard of your most deserved appointment as team captain in my rival’s unfortunate absence, that I should find an opportune moment in which to extend the hand of friendship. And now that moment has landed in my lap!”

Yamato considered Gai’s spandex-clad lap and coughed.

It was in the simple act of putting away the groceries that he saw Gai’s skill of movement for the first time. He moved as gracefully as a dancer and Yamato found it easy to understand his taijutsu prowess. Gai also had an uncanny knack for finding the proper home for each food item almost instantly. The job was done far faster than Yamato would have managed alone and he tipped Gai a brief bow.

“Thank you, I appreciate the help.”

Gai beamed. “The pleasure was mine. Now! About that tea!”

Yamato considered the idea of being in a public tea shop with Gai’s booming voice carrying their conversation clear out into the street and blanched. Then he uttered the words that sealed his fate forever after.

“Or I could brew us a pot here?”

Gai’s eyes shone with delight. “Ah, your hospitality knows no bounds! You honour me, Yamato-kun!”

Yamato didn’t know whether to be warmed or offended by the switch in honorific but he opted to ignore it either way and busied himself with the business of finding cups and saucers and brewing the tea.

When he placed everything on the kitchen table and took a seat he found Gai staring at him intently, his chin resting on his hands.

“Please tell me more about yourself, Yamato-kun,” he said earnestly. “I would be delighted to hear about your life, your interests, and anything else you would be happy to discuss.”

“Ah.” Yamato faltered as his mind went horribly blank in the face of such plain and ardent interest.

People were never interested in Yamato. His specialty in ANBU had always been stealth and it wasn’t only his mokuton that allowed him to blend easily into the background (and the mokuton only worked when there was tree cover, anyway. It was completely useless in built up areas, or indoors for that matter). No, Yamato was simply ordinary. His face was nondescript. Some had described it as unnervingly blank, that blankness allowing others to project anything that they chose onto his features and later finding themselves unable to recall his true appearance.

People were interested in his _abilities_ , oh yes. The prized mokuton. It had even been the reason that Kakashi had spared his life the first time they’d met. Kakashi had grown into a true friend with time, but with everyone else the questions always ran along the same lines: how does it work? What can you do with it? Will you show me?

Yamato was flustered by Gai’s question––no, it hadn’t been a question at all, it had been a request. He’d asked Yamato to talk about himself as though what he held in his mind was as precious as mission intel.

And Yamato couldn’t think of a thing to tell him in response to that.

After a silence long enough to make his skin crawl, Yamato said, lamely, “I’m sure Kakashi-senpai has told you the important facts already.”

Gai’s smile was gentle at that, the first thing Yamato had seen of him that could have been described as such. It transformed his face and his presence from something ludicrous to something––Yamato hesitated to admit to himself at first––deeply alluring.

That Gai was handsome was undeniable. His features were striking, strong and utterly masculine with his well-defined jaw and heavy brows perfectly matched to his buff shinobi’s build, of which the clinging green jumpsuit left very little to the imagination. Caught in the man's scrutiny, Yamato had no choice but to notice his handsomeness.

His eyes drifted to Gai’s generously proportioned lips, for once not split in a grin, and he swallowed.

“I want to hear from you, Yamato-kun,” Gai said, soberly. “What you consider important, not what others do. Who is Yamato? What sets his soul aflame?”

“Sets his soul...oh.” Yamato’s cheeks were hot and he looked down into his tea. “I, uh. I don’t know about that.”

“I myself have a great passion for teaching,” Gai said. Yamato glanced up and was rewarded with a brilliant smile. “It came to me somewhat unexpectedly, but once I was assigned to a genin team I formed very profound bonds with my wonderful students. Passing along what skills and knowledge that I can to them and watching them blossom into fine, strong shinobi brings me a great deal of joy.”

Yamato’s own smile crept up on him as Gai spoke until he realised he was gazing at him with far too much fondness for a relative stranger and quickly looked away.

“That’s...really great,” he said lamely.

“So? Will you share your most ardent passion with me, Yamato-kun?”

Yamato was no good with words, he never had been, but he didn’t want to leave Gai with nothing. For reasons he didn’t fully understand at the time (but would come to in short order), he couldn’t bear the thought of Gai leaving his apartment with just as dull a view of him as everybody else had. He was filled with a powerful urge to present him with something, anything, of value.

A sudden idea came to him and his eyes gleamed.

“I can show you, instead,” he said, rising from his chair. “Come with me.”

Yamato led Gai through his apartment, pointing out all the furniture he had made and all of the plants that he took joy in nurturing.

“The bookcase was the longest project,” he said. “It took months to find suitable lumber, and then the cutting and sanding was more difficult than I anticipated. The wood was much harder than I’d thought at first, you see.”

“Hm.” Gai frowned ponderously at the bookcase, hand on his chin. “I must say, the colour is wonderful.”

“I, ah, mix my own stain.”

“You are a man of many talents, I see,” Gai said and Yamato laughed self-consciously.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

Gai followed him into the bedroom to look at the plants he grew in there.

“This one is a foxglove,” Yamato said, then quickly caught Gai’s wrist as he reached out. “Don’t touch. It’s highly toxic.”

Gai’s eyebrows crept upwards. “You keep toxic plants in your bedroom. That is...fascinating.”

“Most people would say ‘strange’,” Yamato said.

His fingers remained loosely curled around Gai’s wrist, which was thick and warm and deeply comforting. The last adjective surprised Yamato as it bloomed in his mind. He wasn’t normally one to seek out physical contact, particularly with people he had known for so little time. He had met Maito Gai less than four hours ago, and yet the man drew him in like a satellite into orbit. 

Yamato was reserved, he knew, perfectly genial to all he encountered but slow to truly open up. He was careful with his friendship, guarding it almost jealously and only extending his hand to those he already trusted and knew well. Gai was most certainly not on that list but he had already referred to Yamato as his friend more than once and Yamato didn’t feel inclined to deny it.

He dropped Gai’s wrist like he had been burned and took a large sideways step. “Ah, that’s really everything of interest here. I have some other things out in the forest.”

“Oh?”

Yamato could have slapped himself. Not even Kakashi knew about his patch of forest but here he was, blurting it out to the loudest mouth in Konoha!

But somehow he knew unquestioningly that if he asked Gai not to reveal any of their conversation, he wouldn’t. He didn't think he'd even need to ask; it would be implicit. Kakashi kept his cards even closer to his chest than Yamato did. If he could be friends––best friends––with Maito Gai, then his confidence was a certainty.

“Yes,” Yamato said before he could think himself out of it. “That’s where I make my larger sculptures.”

Gai smiled the warm, gentle smile from earlier, the one that made Yamato’s stomach do very funny things indeed. “I would be honoured to see your sculptures one day, Yamato.”

He had dropped the honorific already yet he hadn’t pushed to see the sculptures, seeming to understand instinctively that Yamato had let him in on something deeply intimate without fully meaning to. The faint promise held in the phrase 'one day' was warming, exciting. Yamato battled in the face of two conflicting compulsions; the first to squirm away from this strange new relationship that was evolving far more rapidly than he was prepared for, and the other…

The other to throw himself into it head first.

“Our tea,” Yamato said, glancing towards the kitchen. “It will have gone cold.”

“No matter,” Gai said. “I expect that I’ve overstayed my welcome in any case.”

His dark eyes urged Yamato to deny it and Yamato found himself helpless.

“Not at all. You’re welcome to stay for another cup.”

“Thank you,” Gai said, holding his gaze. “I would love to.”

They ended up talking for an hour longer and Yamato found himself speaking on subjects that he had never dared to before. Gai listened as though utterly captivated and it spurred him on. His mouth ran like a tap.

“Such a long time in ANBU,” Gai mused, watching Yamato over the rim of his still steaming teacup. “Have you considered leaving?”

“Shinobi don’t really leave ANBU,” Yamato said. “Kakashi was sort of a special case.” A smile twitched at his lips as he added, “I understand that you may have had something to do with that.”

“I would like to believe so,” Gai said lightly, “but the truth is the Sandaime had already planned to release him. He has such valuable skills and insight to pass on to the next generation, don’t you agree?”

“I do,” Yamato said warmly. “He was an excellent captain to me.”

Suddenly, Gai’s eyes were brimming over.

“To think,” he said in a voice trembling with emotion, “that the two of us should both foster such shining admiration for the same man! That Kakashi could be so dear, so cherished, both as my glorious rival and as your devoted captain!”

A tear slipped down his cheek and Yamato reached out, alarmed.

“Oh, please don’t cry!”

Gai seized his hand and squeezed almost hard enough to break his fingers. “I apologise,” he said, gazing at Yamato through a film of tears. “I only regret that we didn’t meet before, yet I must also rejoice that we have come together at last! To have a friend in common is a wonderful thing! It makes us instant kin, does it not?”

“If you say so,” Yamato mumbled, trying to extricate his hand.

At the apartment door Gai folded him into a breath-stealing hug that lifted him entirely off of the ground.

“Rest well, my treasured friend! We shall continue our most stimulating conversation anon!”

“I...I’ll see you around, Gai,” Yamato said, taking a step back and rubbing his neck.

“Indeed you shall!” Gai beamed and struck a pose with one hand on his cocked hip and the other thrust out in a thumbs up. “Pleasant dreams!”

He vaulted over the balcony instead of taking the stairs and Yamato stood at the door for a full minute afterwards with a wondering expression on his face.

What a completely unique person Gai was, he thought to himself.

Unique and, somehow, intensely compelling.

✽✦✽✦✽

“I heard you finally met Gai,” Kakashi said the next time they met for a training session with the kids.

“Ah.” Yamato cleared his throat. “I did.”

“It seems like you made quite an impression,” Kakashi said, bumping Yamato with his shoulder. “I’ve never seen him so enthusiastic.”

Yamato stared at him. “You can’t be serious. That man could be enthusiastic about...I don’t know, his own shadow!”

Kakashi hummed, his visible eye crinkling. “He likes you.”

“That’s...nice.”

“What did you think of him?”

Yamato stared at his friend some more with a sense of dawning horror. “Are you trying to...set us up?”

Kakashi shrugged. “Maa, I’m not much of a matchmaker.”

“Senpai!”

“What did you think of him?” the silver-haired shinobi repeated and Yamato swallowed.

“He seems...very nice.”

“You’d see him again?” Kakashi prompted.

“I haven’t seen him _once_.”

“You mean that wasn’t a date the other day?”

“A...date _?_ ” Yamato repeated, incredulous. “What on Earth...why would you ever think I’d been on a _date_ with Maito Gai?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Kakashi said, a mischievous sparkle in his grey eye. “Inviting him back to your apartment, making him tea. It sounded sort of romantic.”

“I had to go to my apartment to put groceries away,” Yamato insisted through gritted teeth as he slowly turned scarlet. “He followed me there, that’s all.”

Kakashi hummed knowingly and lay back on the grass with his arms behind his head. He crossed his legs at the knee and swung his foot idly.

“You’re up to something,” Yamato accused, kneeling over him.

Kakashi’s eye widened in mock innocence.

“Tenzō. I’m appalled by your accusation.”

Yamato ignored the use of his old codename and frowned suspiciously down at his former captain.

“You _are_ trying to set us up.”

Kakashi’s eye slid sideways. “I would never.”

Yamato sat back heavily on his heels. “Does Gai think that it was a date?”

Kakashi sat up, his arms behind him to support his weight. “Ah. There may be a chance that he does.”

“But that wouldn’t have anything to do with you, would it?” Yamato asked darkly.

“I couldn’t possibly say.”

Yamato moulded his features into his scary face and Kakashi blanched.

“Ack! Don’t give me that look!”

“Kakashi,” Yamato said in a hollow voice. “You shouldn’t try to matchmake your friends without telling them.”

“I wasn’t, I swear!” Kakashi held up his hands and Yamato dropped his ghoulish expression, to the other man’s relief. “I shouldn’t have teased. I honestly had nothing to do with it. I happened to run into Gai yesterday and all he could talk about was you.”

“I…” Yamato looked away wonderingly. “Really?”

“So? Do you like him?”

“I…” Yamato found himself at a loss for words. He looked at his friend helplessly. “He’s just so...ah...we’ve really only just met.”

Kakashi’s eye softened. “I promise I’m not up to no good, but...I don’t know. I’m pretty close to both of you and I can see something coming out of it, strange as it may seem to you right now.”

“We’re very different,” Yamato mumbled, twisting his fingers together in his lap.

Kakashi caught his wrist to still his hands. “Different is good sometimes, isn’t it? Exciting?”

“I’m not really one for excitement.”

Kakashi scoffed. “Please. I’ve seen you after a good fight. You’re just as much of an adrenaline junkie as any of us.”

“But dating––or friendship,” Yamato corrected quickly off of the gleam in Kakashi’s eye, “isn’t like fighting. It’s not supposed to be a...I don’t know, a challenge. There isn’t a winner and a loser.”

He could just make out Kakashi’s broad grin beneath his mask. “If you think dating can’t be a challenge then you _definitely_ don’t know Maito Gai.”

✽✦✽✦✽

Somehow, Konoha’s Magnificent Green Beast got into Yamato’s head and set up residence there.

He started to catch himself, during dull training sessions spent in his totem circle watching Naruto’s kage bunshin, daydreaming about how Gai’s presence would surely have injected some much needed jollity into the occasion.

That was why, when Kakashi, Naruto and Rock Lee manipulated events to drop the taijutsu master into Yamato's lap, he couldn’t find it in himself to be all that angry.

Not that he would let them off so easily, of course. He was more than happy for them to believe that he resented the intrusion.

But the truth was, Kakashi had been right. He could use the excitement.

The mission had been a run-of-the-mill B rank that Yamato had taken for the extra cash. He had his eye on a rather exotic new plant for his garden and he was running low on cash in the portion of his savings that was reserved for such things (borrowing from other areas was unthinkable). He’d been out of Konoha for three days only and he wasn’t overly tired as he strolled through the gates with Aoba, who had been his partner for the two-man job. It was an hour or so before sunset and he was looking forward to a quiet evening curled up with a good book, a warm bath and a bottle of wine.

Naturally, that wasn’t what he ended up with.

“Captain Yamato!” The ear-splitting yell assaulted him almost before his feet had crossed the village boundary.

Naruto skidded to a stop at Yamato’s feet in a shower of dust that made them all cough. Yamato took hold of his shoulders, concerned.

“What in the world is the matter? Where is Kakashi?”

“There’s no time to explain!” Naruto cried, turning back towards the centre of town and dragging Yamato along by the hand. “Come quickly!”

Dread swirled in Yamato’s gut as the two of them took to the rooftops and raced in the direction of the training grounds. What could have happened within the village limits, he wondered? Why would he be needed so badly that Naruto couldn’t even take the time to tell him why?

They arrived at Team Kakashi’s preferred training ground and Yamato stopped dead in his tracks.

Kakashi was there, dangling upside down from the tallest tree in sight.

Incredibly, he was reading _Icha Icha Tactics_.

“Yo,” he called with a lazy wave. “I seem to have become stuck.”

Yamato’s eyebrows crept upwards. “Stuck. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, he’s really stuck!” Naruto agreed, nodding enthusiastically. “We’ve tried everything to get him down!”

“We?”

“Yosh! Let’s give it the full power of youth!”

“Yes, Gai-sensei!”

Yamato watched wide-eyed as Gai and what appeared to be a chibi Gai sprinted from the sidelines and began to assault the tree that had apparently ‘caught’ Kakashi. They battered it with exuberant kicks and punches while Kakashi continued to read unfazed.

“It is of no use,” Gai said finally, breathing hard with his hands braced on his powerful thighs. “I believe we require further assistance.”

“Captain Yamato can help with his mokuton, believe it!” Naruto exclaimed.

Yamato side-eyed his tow-headed student. “You called me here to get Kakashi down from a tree?”

“It can’t be helped,” Kakashi said mildly, turning a page.

“Has Kakashi-sensei perhaps tried...climbing down from the tree?”

“I’m stuck,” Kakashi said.

Suddenly, Gai was in Yamato’s personal space flashing him a sparkling grin. He smelled heavily of sweat from his exertion but Yamato found that he didn’t mind it. In fact, he realised with a blush, parts of him very much didn’t mind it.

Could anybody really make the smell of fresh sweat sexy? Gai was certainly dedicated to trying without even realising it.

“Might you lend us your expertise, my most excellent friend?” Gai entreated.

“Okay,” Yamato squeaked.

Kakashi put very little effort into appearing to really be stuck and as a result Yamato put even less effort into bringing him back to Earth gently. He placed his palm against the trunk of the tree, focused, and all of the branches shot violently upwards, flinging Kakashi with them to scramble for several seconds in mid air before plummeting.

He landed on his feet with all the grace of a cat, because that was just Kakashi.

Gai was delighted.

“Only my hip rival could remain so cool in the face of mortal peril!”

“Mortal peril?” Yamato murmured to himself.

“But how did you get stuck up there, Kakashi-sensei?” chibi Gai asked with a puzzled frown. “You are a highly skilled shinobi of Konoha! Surely a simple tree could not best you?”

Kakashi shrugged, still studying his book. “Even skilled shinobi have off days, I suppose.”

So this Gai Jr. was at least a little smarter than his mentor, Yamato thought. Except, he didn’t really believe it was stupidity that led Gai to take everything as gospel truth, no matter how ludicrous. No, it was faith, devotion, trust and an innocence so unshakeable that it couldn’t be anything other than completely charming.

“Hey, everyone,” Naruto said, his voice unsubtly sly. “Why don’t we all go for dinner to celebrate Kakashi's rescue?”

“A great idea!” chibi Gai exclaimed. “Kakashi-sensei, please choose a restaurant!”

“Maa, I can't go with you,” Kakashi said. “I have to water Mr. Ukki.”

Naruto made amazingly little protest which caused Yamato to side-eye him even harder.

“Ichiraku!” he crowed, then performed a comically exaggerated double take and contorted his face into a pout. “Oh no, I can’t. I promised Sakura I would go for dinner at her house.”

 _Dinner at Sakura’s house?_ Yamato opened his mouth to say that was the second most preposterous thing he’d heard that day, but Naruto was already dragging chibi Gai away with him.

“Don’t you remember, Lee? You’re coming, too!”

“Oh? _Oh_! Yes! We must hurry before we are late, which would be most rude and unyouthful!”

At the edge of the training ground, chibi Gai––Lee––stopped and gave Yamato a sweeping bow.

“Captain Yamato, please feel free to enjoy dinner with Gai-sensei in our absence!”

That was apparently too obvious even for Naruto, who squeaked and elbowed the other boy in the ribs hard enough to extract a pained ‘oof’. The two hurried away, leaving Yamato alone with Gai.

“Please do not feel any obligation,” Gai started, surprisingly bashful. “I am, however, free for dinner, if Yamato-kun would deign to––”

“It would be my pleasure,” Yamato said before he could stop to think about it and Gai’s face-splitting grin was his glorious reward.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To all of my fellow cabin-dwellers who commented on chapter 1, you are all wonderful and I love you <3 :D
> 
> If u thought that chapter was soft then prepare to have your heart wrapped up in the warmest coziest blanket u can imagine
> 
> Note the rating bump, it will go to Explicit in chapter 3...because this is a Sketchy fic so of course it gets smutty XD
> 
> ~~posting it before I can edit it to death any more~~

> **"Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world."**
> 
> _― John Muir_

Gai insisted on paying for everything.

Yamato didn't argue very hard against it. Between Naruto and his mooching senpai, his wallet was definitely feeling a little too light of late.

They ate at a small bistro on the outskirts of town and Yamato learned that Gai did, in fact, possess an 'indoor voice'.

"It must have been difficult," he said of Yamato's orphanhood.

Yamato shrugged. "Not especially. I don't remember any different."

Gai studied him and once again Yamato felt pinned by the dark depths of his eyes.

"You possess a great deal of strength," he stated with absolute conviction, as though he had completed his silent assessment of Yamato and drawn conclusions that were irrefutable. "More than I believe even you are aware of."

Yamato smiled self-consciously. "All shinobi must be strong to thrive in this world."

Gai laced his fingers beneath his chin. "You are too modest. But no matter! In time, you will learn to accept and believe my compliments." He grinned and Yamato blushed, warmed by his attention and the wine they were sharing. The warmth made him brave and a little impatient. Gai's sudden and apparent interest in him was like a puzzle he had yet to solve; not unwelcome, but curious.

"I have to ask," Yamato began, and Gai leaned forward as if to ensure he didn't miss a syllable. "Why me?"

"Why?"

"I mean," Yamato gestured to their food, their surroundings. "Of all the people in the village, why are you interested in me?"

Gai's face creased in a gentle frown and Yamato was suddenly seized by the horrifying possibility that he had deeply misread Gai's intentions.

"Oh my God," he mumbled, covering his face with one hand. "You're just being polite. You take people out to dinner all the time."

"I most certainly do not," Gai said. There was a low rumble of amusement in his voice and Yamato peeked from between his fingers. "I consider this a very special occasion, Yamato."

Yamato wasn’t sure if that was better.

Gai took his hand gently and his uncertainty only deepened.

The hand, though, felt very good in his. Large and warm, slightly calloused.

"You don't expect to be noticed," Gai observed and suddenly Yamato could see himself falling, really falling for Gai, if the man would only keep hold of his hand and keep watching him with those intense eyes.

"I confess, as the most trusted kōhai of my dear rival, it was simple curiosity that led to our first fortuitous encounter," Gai continued, wearing the soft smile that Yamato was becoming entirely too fond of. "But once we began to converse I found you absolutely captivating."

Yamato's mouth went a little dry. "Captivating? Me?"

Gai's smile widened. "You're surprised?"

"I suppose I've always thought of myself as just an ordinary… Captivating? That's really the word you'd use?"

Gai threw back his head and laughed heartily, his mouth opening wide enough to show his back teeth.

Yamato tried to draw his head all the way into his cowl like a turtle.

And Gai was still holding his hand.

 _Petting_ it, actually.

Suddenly Gai stood and pulled Yamato up with him. He bowed deeply, lowering his forehead to meet their joined hands.

"Now, then! We have eaten, and eaten well. What do you say to continuing our enchanted evening with an energising stroll to the lake?"

Diners at other tables were definitely watching them now, some from the corners of their eyes while others openly stared and sniggered behind their hands.

Unlike their first meeting in the marketplace, though, the strangers around them had nothing to do with Yamato's answer. He smiled at his green-clad companion and it was a smile that made his eyes shine.

"I say, lead the way."

✽✦✽✦✽

Night had crept in while they dined and when they left the restaurant the streets were lit only by the sliver of moon high overhead. Although Konoha certainly had the means to power streetlights, they were rarely used in the interests of protecting the village from being visible to airborne enemies. Any shinobi worth their salt considered it a matter of pride to be able to navigate in the darkness and of course Maito Gai was no exception.

Yamato was just as able to get around without daylight, though in his case it was due to his extensive history as an ANBU agent. Darkness had tended to help with the whole ‘stealth’ aspect.

They walked hand in hand and it was exceedingly pleasant. Yamato struggled to remember the last time that anybody had held his hand. He couldn’t be certain that anybody had in his entire life. Definitely not like this, when he was a grown adult and the hand-holding served no purpose other than its very pleasantness.

Shyly, he laced his fingers together with Gai’s, looking resolutely ahead to avoid the look that the other man threw him. He tried, without much success, to will away the fire that burned his cheeks crimson.

Sensing with extraordinary perceptiveness what Yamato needed in that moment, Gai started to tell him about his day, effectively distracting Yamato from his own awkwardness. His voice ran with a soothing cadence, cheerful as always but muted in deference to the lateness of the hour and the stillness of the streets they walked through. He told Yamato about his three students and how proud he was of them all, where they had started as fresh-faced Academy graduates and how Lee and Tenten had progressed to become two fine chunin and Neji a jounin. As he spoke, tears of pride leaked steadily from his eyes to leave wet, faintly glimmering trails down his cheeks. His voice, however, remained level.

“I must confess that Neji’s prowess has little to do with me,” he said with a small smile. “He is an immensely gifted youth of his clan who was bound to excel under any sensei. I do believe that hard work is the most vital aspect of any endeavour and our greatest guarantee of success, but I also believe that Neji is immensely gifted with or without the full force of his efforts.”

Yamato was surprised by that. "Now who isn't giving themself enough credit," he teased and Gai squeezed his hand fondly.

"You may be right, my young friend. But! It does not do to become big-headed! I must make every effort to remain humble. After all, one's glorious and worthwhile pursuit of self-improvement is never complete!"

"Self-improvement, huh?"

"Of course!" Gai's teeth glittered in the moonlight. They reached the lake and stopped walking.

"And how do you practice self-improvement, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Not at all." Gai's face took on an expression of pride that made him look incredibly noble as he gazed across the water like a king surveying his kingdom. "I strive to keep my body at peak physical performance. Not only because of my work, you understand, but for myself. My body is a most cherished blessing and so long as I have my health and my youth I shall celebrate my vitality in every way that I can think of!"

"Such as?" Yamato prodded, greatly enjoying listening to Gai wax lyrical. He seemed to choose his words like a poet, not for their clarity but for their artistry.

"My daily training is key," Gai answered, "but I am always ready for an impromptu challenge! It is one's response to the unexpected that speaks of who they are at their very core. No person can fail to show their true self under such circumstances, wouldn't you agree?"

"I've never thought about it," Yamato answered lamely.

"What does Yamato think about?" Gai asked earnestly.

Yamato's other hand joined the first in Gai's gentle hold. His mind went woefully blank.

"I…ah...ugh," he huffed in disgust at his own inability to say anything interesting about himself. Maybe if there were anything interesting to tell.

"Please do not be shy, my dear friend," Gai encouraged, and when exactly had the shift from 'young friend' to 'dear friend' occurred?

"It isn't that," Yamato said, then blurted, "I just can't think when you look at me like that."

"Like what?" Gai's face was the picture of innocence.

"Like… You're actually waiting to hear what I have to say." Yamato looked at their joined hands. "Like it matters."

For an uncomfortably long time Gai only watched him. His thumbs rubbed over Yamato’s knuckles. Part of Yamato––a large part, the _largest_ ––wanted to run away and merge into the nearest tree to get away from that scrutiny.

But a tiny part of him was thrilled by it and that part managed to win out, like a spark of wildfire that nonetheless was fierce enough to burn through the deadwood of the shy, self-deprecating man that he was on the surface.

He wasn’t used to being seen, really seen, but it wasn’t _bad_.

“Everything that you say matters, Yamato,” Gai said finally, his eyes positively scorching. “It matters because you have chosen to say it.”

Gai may have ignited a fire inside him, but it was still startling to find himself ablaze. Yamato felt himself flush with heat and he gently tugged his hands free to shove them into his pockets. He took a tentative step backwards, forcing himself to smile at Gai so that the other man would know that it wasn’t a rejection.

Only a ‘maybe cool down just a little’.

“So. How else would you suggest that one might pursue self-improvement?” he asked.

Gai smiled at him and Yamato was assured that the other man had understood his meaning. He continued to be impressed, perhaps unfairly, by Gai’s intuition and tact. A fiercely intelligent mind certainly lurked beneath all of his outlandish speech. Just as he had always been ‘Yamato (or Tenzō, or Kinoe) of the Wood Release’, Yamato wondered how much Gai chose to hide behind his reputation as ‘Konoha’s Sublime Green Beast’. How much of the ridiculousness was really Gai and how much was a smokescreen?

“One should never neglect one’s intellect, of course,” Gai said with a slight teacherly bent. “I read on a wide variety of topics as often as I am able.”

“This all sounds like a lot of work,” Yamato said. “Do you ever take time to just...have fun? Relax, even?”

“If self-improvement is work, it is certainly work that I enjoy,” Gai said. His face slowly lit up as he pondered. “I take great pleasure in my friendly challenges with Kakashi, of course, and in training my students.”

“You have a soft spot for Lee, don’t you?”

Gai looked ashamed. “Is it so obvious?”

“You seem a lot alike,” Yamato said. “It’s only natural you would be more drawn to him.”

“Perhaps,” Gai said. “Although I often find myself strongly drawn to those who seem, on the surface, at least, to be quite different from myself.” His words and his gaze were both loaded as he added, “Wouldn’t you say so, Yamato?”

“Ah.” Yamato rubbed the back of his neck.

“Have you managed to remember what it is that excites you?”

He almost choked on a breath before Gai added, “I mean to say, where your thoughts most often dwell. Where your interests lie.”

“Oh.” Yamato gave himself the space to really consider and Gai waited patiently. It stoked the new fire in his chest and he let himself enjoy the feeling of knowing that Gai was genuinely interested in whatever he had to say, but at the same time wasn’t expecting him to be funny or riveting or charming, only to be honest.

“You've already seen my furniture and my plants," Yamato said, both of them smiling fondly at the memory. "Aside from those hobbies, I suppose I’ve always been focussed on work. I was in ANBU for so long and you really don’t get much free time there.”

“That’s true,” Gai said, nodding. “I remember Kakashi rarely had an evening to spare for his outside friends. Although,” he added with a sly look, “he never tried all that hard to make the time.”

“If it’s any consolation,” Yamato said dryly, “he never socialised with his ANBU teammates any more than he could help it, either.”

“He certainly is a strange one,” Gai mused. He bent down to whisper conspiratorially even though they were completely alone beside the lake. His closeness sent his warm breath drifting deliciously over Yamato’s ear. “You know, Yamato, it did strike me as rather suspicious that my most esteemed rival could find himself undone by a mere tree. I wonder if there was really some underhanded plot afoot.”

Had Gai really just used the word ‘afoot’? No matter. Yamato mentally shook himself.

“Well, of course there was, Gai.”

“Oh?” Gai rubbed a finger thoughtfully over the groove below his lower lip. Yamato tried not to focus too much on his mouth. “Would you care to enlighten me?”

“They were trying to set us up,” Yamato said flatly. “Gai. Did you really not see that?”

“Set us up?” Gai frowned, then abruptly let loose a roar of laughter.

Yamato’s blood ran cold in his veins.

“Is that...funny?”

Just as abruptly, Gai’s laughter ceased and his eyes burned into Yamato’s, dancing with a spark of teasing humour.

“I feel that I should be insulted. My rival has made an incredibly foolish assumption.”

“What...assumption?” Yamato’s stomach twisted again at the idea that this could all be an elaborate display of friendship and not of––

“That I would need his help in seducing you.”

“Seducing?” Yamato squeaked, then cleared his throat and forced his voice a few octaves lower. “Is...ah. Is that what you’re doing?”

Gai leaned in with a grin that bordered on a leer. It shouldn’t have been sexy but, to Yamato, it very much was.

“Is it working?”

“Hah.” Yamato swallowed and turned his face away. “Um.”

The truth was that he felt powerfully attracted to Gai, so much so that it unnerved him and made him want to shy away from the other man who, after all, he still barely knew. Although, he mused, he already knew more about Gai in ten hours than he had learned about Kakashi in as many years. Kakashi, though, made a terrible example of a healthy, well-adjusted human being and the friendship between the two of them was far from typical.

Come to think of it, Yamato couldn’t think of a single shinobi in Konoha who he would classify as a model of appropriate behaviour. Perhaps Gai wasn’t so strange after all. Perhaps his oddities were only flashier and therefore more noticeable than other people’s. And if they were all a little strange, Yamato thought with a surge of confidence, should he find it so discomforting that he was discovering––and enjoying––a quite profound connection with the jumpsuit-wearing taijutsu master?

Before Yamato could find a response Gai struck a dramatic, finger-pointing pose.

“I propose a challenge!”

Yamato blinked. “Right now?”

“Of course!”

Gai abruptly performed several star jumps followed by a tight somersault, forcing Yamato to reconsider his opinion that Gai was no more strange than anybody else.

“What kind of a challenge?” he asked, half reluctant and half excited.

Gai beamed. “We swim the lake! First to the other side shall be declared the winner!”

“Swim the…” Yamato’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious.”

“Deathly so, my dear Yamato! For what could be better than an invigorating nighttime swim? And the addition of competition will only make the experience all the more thrilling!”

“Did you plan this?” Yamato asked. “Bringing me to the lake?”

“The idea has just come upon me, as all of life’s best things are wont to do!” Gai pumped both fists. “Ah, I cannot wait any longer! I long to be in the water whether you will race me or not!”

In three seconds flat the green jumpsuit was heaped on the ground and Yamato was trying not to stare at a nearly naked Maito Gai.

Not trying overly hard, but still trying.

Gai faced the water with his hands on his hips and his (thick, muscular) legs spread. He took a deep breath and released it with a happy sigh.

“Ah, the night is a beautiful one. The water will be lovely.” He looked over his shoulder at Yamato. “Will Yamato not join me?”

It was the wine. It had to be the wine muddling his thoughts, leading him to do things that he would never in his right mind dream of doing.

Yamato glanced around to make sure there was nobody in sight, then he started to strip.

Gai didn’t make any pretence not to be admiring his body and suddenly the idea of diving into the cool lake to sooth the heated blush lighting up every inch of his skin was incredibly appealing.

“What are the stakes on this challenge?” Yamato asked.

Gai tilted his head, considering. “Should you win the race, what would you want?”

_To spend more time with you, you crazy, irrepressible man._

“You without the jumpsuit,” Yamato blurted out, hastily adding, “a different outfit, I mean. If I win, you’re banned from jumpsuits for a week. I want to see what else you have in your wardrobe.”

Gai’s slow smile looked even better with so much of his skin bared to the moonlight. “An excellent suggestion! Very well, I shall match it. I propose that when I win––yes, I say ‘when’––you will wear an outfit of my choosing for a week. Fair?”

_Say no! Can you even imagine what insane idea of an outfit he could choose for you?_

But that was exactly the thrill of the thing, wasn’t it?

“Fair,” Yamato said. “Start on three?”

“Not so fast, although your enthusiasm is glorious to behold!” Gai held out a hand that smacked lightly into Yamato’s (very bare) chest. “We must first prepare ourselves for such an exertion. Stretch!”

He dropped into a dramatic split and Yamato choked on his own spit.

“Come now!” Gai exclaimed as he rose smoothly and dipped to touch his toes. “You wouldn’t want to get a cramp, would you?” He raised his head to grin up at Yamato.

He was weak in the face of that grin. Finished. Toast. There was no longer any denying the heat between them, no pretending that this teasing was anything but foreplay.

“That depends,” Yamato said as he started to stretch, bending to the side with one arm reaching over his head. “Would you massage it better if I did?”

Gai’s grin turned devilish as his eyes darkened. “Of course I would do my utmost to aid in Yamato’s recovery.”

Yamato sank into a deep lunge, hands braced on one thigh in a way that he knew made his arm muscles pop and Gai made no secret of his appreciation as a low sound rumbled in his throat. Yamato grinned and leaned backwards to pull his stomach taut.

“I hope you’re ready to get your ass kicked. I’m a water style user. I swim like a fish.”

They lined up at the edge of the lake and Yamato had one find second to regret all of the life choices that had brought him to that moment before Gai screamed “GO!” and he leapt.

Both men cut gracefully into the water, gliding down to almost touch bottom before powering forward. Gai fell into a powerful breaststroke while Yamato settled into his preferred crawl.

The lake was roughly three hundred meters across, a good ten minute swim that required them to pace themselves. As he moved through the dark water, Yamato realised that he was enjoying himself immensely. It was the most spontaneous thing he’d ever done and it was joyous. The water was cool but his body warmed with his exertion and it felt good to use his muscles, his strength and his power outside of a battlefield. It felt good to compete, however good-natured the competition might have been. It felt good to challenge himself and it felt good to be with Gai even if all that Yamato could see of him were glimpses of his dark hair whenever he turned his head to breathe.

He wondered why he’d never done anything so ridiculous before when it felt so wonderful.

Of course, he’d never known anybody who would have suggested such a thing.

At the halfway point, Gai had the barest lead. As they reached the final stretch, nearly neck and neck, Yamato dug deep and pushed himself almost to his limit, his lungs burning in his chest. They streaked through the calm water side by side, chakra unaided, letting their shinobi trained bodies do the work.

Within the last half meter Yamato stole ahead and his fingertips met the mud of the bank a heartbeat before Gai’s.

They both burst from the water, breathing hard. Gai threw his hair back from his face, sending droplets cascading into the darkness.

“You are victorious, Yamato! I salute your superior form.”

“I got lucky,” Yamato said between heaving breaths. “On another day, you would win.”

“I believe that you are right,” Gai agreed. He beamed at Yamato and the moonlight gleamed off of his straight white teeth and picked out each droplet of lakewater clinging to his skin.

It could have been the adrenaline inflating his feelings and muddling his self-control, but mostly Yamato knew that it wasn’t. He felt that he had been treated to an exhibition of all of Gai’s very best qualities during their challenge. The dark-haired man had been competitive yet gracious in defeat, impulsive yet impeccably controlled. He had been celebrating his strength and his life with every movement and in Yamato's eyes his appeal had shot through the roof.

Simply put, Yamato very much wanted to kiss Maito Gai. He was almost giddy with wanting it and he could see no reason to wait any longer.

Yamato closed the short distance between them with intent, keeping his eyes locked on Gai’s as the other man’s grin faded to a look that smouldered with anticipation. He braced one hand against the mud bank to keep him from sinking when he reached for the cool, damp skin of Gai’s cheek and moved in to meet his mouth.

Gai responded immediately though much more gently than Yamato might have expected, only parting his lips with a soft sigh. He allowed Yamato to keep hold of the lead he’d taken when he initiated the kiss and Yamato gladly accepted the invitation to slide his tongue into the warmth of Gai’s mouth. Gai’s fingers found Yamato’s wet hair and settled there, catching lightly on tangles.

It was a tentative first kiss, both men still breathing heavily from their swim but neither wanting to break apart as Yamato’s tongue rested just past the edge of Gai’s teeth. Even so, Yamato felt electricity zing up his spine, unmistakable and intoxicating.

After long seconds of this near stillness––during which Yamato could feel his own heartbeat drumming in his chest––Gai seemed to accept that he wasn’t merely testing the waters but had decided he most definitely wanted to be kissing him. The hand in Yamato’s hair slid to the back of his neck to support him and Gai angled his head to slot their open mouths more firmly together. His tongue surged into Yamato’s mouth, questing against his own, tasting him deeply as a low moan rolled through his chest. A strong arm wound around Yamato’s back and pulled him closer and Yamato was abruptly reminded that both of them were very nearly naked in a lake after dark but none of that made him want to stop what they were doing.

Gai broke the kiss only to mouth slowly along the edge of Yamato’s jaw. His teeth grazed the skin and Yamato shivered.

“I have been waiting––hoping for you to do that since first we met,” Gai murmured against the shell of his ear.

“I want to keep doing it,” Yamato said. When he was with Gai he felt like speaking without thinking and leaping without looking.

“This may not be the best place for us to express our desires,” Gai returned, but he sounded very pleased.

The tiny part of Yamato still acting on logic reluctantly agreed with his words. “You’re right. We’ll catch a chill.”

“Can you use fire release?” Gai asked, his lips still dangerously close to Yamato’s ear for a man who allegedly wanted to put on the brakes. “We could warm up right here before we leave. It wouldn’t do to get our clothes wet, would it?”

“You should have thought of that before you stripped,” Yamato said, letting his hand glide from Gai’s face down his neck and to his shoulder.

“My mistake,” Gai said with laughter in his voice. “Well, I suppose we should…”

His words trailed off as he became distracted by the prospect of kissing Yamato’s neck, which he did slowly and thoroughly until Yamato groaned and pushed him reluctantly away.

“Gai.”

“Yes, yes,” Gai said brightly, then hauled himself out of the lake. His underwear had gone very translucent in the water and clung to him like a second skin. Yamato swallowed as he followed him onto dry land. He might have been more embarrassed about his obvious arousal if Gai’s hadn’t been equally prominent. Gai merely grinned without shame.

“That certainly was an invigorating swim!”

“I really don’t know any fire jutsu,” Yamato said lamely, eyeing their clothes on the other side of the lake. “And our clothes––”

“I fear we have but one option,” Gai said and suddenly Yamato found himself pressed up against his wet chest. “Shunshin!”

In a breath they were beside their clothes and Yamato could only watch with dismay as the speed of their arrival swept them all straight into the lake.

“Blast!” Gai exclaimed, scratching his head. “I really ought to have learned by now.”

“This has happened before?” Yamato asked as they both bent to scoop the sodden clothing from the surface of the water.

“Ah, once or twice,” Gai admitted sheepishly. “Perhaps more.”

Crouching by the side of the lake in his underwear, Yamato started to laugh.

Clothing retrieved and wrung out as best they could manage, Gai flickered them to his apartment building. He then spent a hideously long time rifling through his jumpsuit pockets (somehow there were _seven_ of them) for his house key while Yamato shivered on the walkway and uselessly tried to cover himself with his hands. Finally they made it inside and Gai turned to Yamato.

“I would like to make it clear: I intend to act as a gentleman. I have no intention of seducing you any further tonight than I already have.”

“And after tonight?” Yamato asked breathlessly.

For a long, charged moment Gai looked at him like he wanted to eat him alive. Then he shook himself and grinned. "I will fetch us some towels! And I do believe that a pot of tea is in order!"

Gai disappeared with their clothes and returned laden with towels, yukata and pyjamas. Yamato gratefully snatched a towel from the top of the pile that was so tall that it (mercifully) obstructed Gai's view. Being in nothing but his sopping wet underwear had been all fine and good at the lake (well, not really) but in Gai's apartment it felt scandalous.

"Ah, which way is the bathroom?" Yamato asked as he tightened the towel around his waist.

"Through the bedroom, my dear," Gai said and Yamato was halfway there before his brain caught up to the epithet and tried to short circuit.

His gut and his heart, though, joined each other in a slow, elated dance.

In the relative privacy of the bathroom Yamato shimmied out of his underwear and roughly dried himself, then he rifled, slightly guiltily, through Gai's medicine cabinet and used his mouthwash. He checked his teeth for food in the cabinet mirror. He realised, with a burst of frustration that made him smack his palm to his forehead, that he had neglected to bring anything with him to change into.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid._

When he reluctantly re-entered the living room, Gai was dressed in a full length, deep red yukata and was reclining on the futon. A pair of reading glasses perched on the end of his nose and he was flicking idly through a book called _Harmony: Uniting the Body, Mind and Soul_. From the looks of its dog-eared pages he had read it several times before. 

Gai looked up with a smile when Yamato entered the room. When he realised that his torso was still bare, the smile showed his canines.

"I, ah. Forgot to…"

"Say no more!" Gai scrambled to his feet and thrust a bundle of linens into Yamato’s arms. "I have set your clothes to dry over the stove. They should be ready in an hour or so."

Yamato licked his lips and Gai's dark eyes followed the pink edge of his tongue. "What will we do until then, Gai?" he asked softly.

That was the moment in which Gai became gratifyingly flustered. His cheeks turned rosy and he coughed before answering, "I have some tea brewing, if Yamato-kun would care to join me."

“I’ll get dressed,” Yamato agreed.

Never all that comfortable in yukata, he selected a pair of button down flannel pajamas to wear. They were pale grey in colour, wonderfully soft and far too big for him. He returned a little sheepishly and Gai's eyes turned alarmingly liquid at the sight of him.

"You look…" he started then broke off with an almost anguished frown.

Yamato shifted his weight from foot to foot. “I look what?”

Gai glanced bashfully from beneath his lashes. “I. Ah. I am having some difficulty in selecting the most accurate descriptor.”

Yamato sat beside him on the sofa. “Why don’t you try out a couple?”

“Delectable,” Gai said without hesitation. “Ravishing.”

Yamato’s grin almost rivalled Gai’s at its finest. “Thank you. I like your yukata. You look very handsome in red.”

“You flatter me too much,” Gai said with a light flush of pleasure. He placed his book carefully on the floor with his glasses on top. “Well. Now that our surroundings are more comfortable…” His blush deepened as he spoke haltingly and, to Yamato, his lack of surety was immensely satisfying. “That is to say, I would never presume anything more than the pleasure of your company...unless of course...you would like…”

Yamato threw caution to the wind, gaining confidence from Gai’s very lack of it and taking up the reins that the older man had dropped. He climbed carefully into Gai’s lap and relished the sound of all of the man’s breath leaving his body in a surprised rush.

“Yes, I would like,” Yamato said and kissed him again.

Once again Gai accepted his kiss with restraint, parting his lips while his hands settled on the small of Yamato’s back. Yamato took advantage of his patience and kissed him slowly, languidly. He drew back to run his tongue over Gai’s lower lip and Gai made a quiet, strangled noise. Yamato took long, open-mouthed kisses from him, kisses that made his head spin, and Gai’s hands began to move feverishly from his back down his sides to his thighs and back again.

Finally Yamato pressed forward with real intent and Gai lunged upwards to respond in kind, letting out a hungry groan into his mouth that made him shudder.

They necked like teenagers for some time until Yamato finally broke away to collect himself, panting with his forehead against Gai’s shoulder. One of Gai's hands was inside Yamato's pajama shirt pressed to his bare back while the fingers of the other trailed through his dishevelled hair.

“I fear our tea may have gone cold again,” Gai said and Yamato laughed softly.

“That’s okay. I never really wanted tea, anyway.”

“Neither did I,” Gai said. His arm drew tight around Yamato’s waist, hot as a firebrand. “I must say, this evening has altogether exceeded my wildest hopes.”

Yamato drew back to smile at him. “Mine, too.”

Gai was true to his word and didn’t push for more that night, for which Yamato was grateful––not that he wouldn’t have enjoyed going further, much further, but if they had done so he feared his spontaneous combustion would have been a likely outcome.

Instead, Gai remade the cold tea and they talked a little more, curled together on the couch. Gai retrieved a blanket from his bedroom and wrapped it around both of their shoulders, stealing another kiss from Yamato in doing so.

“You don’t use your mokuton to make furniture,” Gai observed, harking back to their first flirtation at Yamato’s apartment.

Sleepily content with his tea in one hand and Gai’s fingers stroking gently over the other, Yamato shook his head.

“I make furniture because it takes time,” he said. “Yes, I could furnish twenty apartments in a single day with the mokuton, but I enjoy the craft. It’s physical, practical work and I get something tangible at the end of it.”

Gai nuzzled his hair. “It is an admirable hobby,” he said. “You must dedicate quite some time to it.”

Yamato considered. “I suppose it’s my version of self-improvement, isn’t it? I read a lot of books to learn more about it, too.”

“Gorgeous, hard-working and intelligent,” Gai mused and Yamato blushed. “I must say your charming qualities seem to be without end.”

Yamato pulled away a little to look him in the eye. “I probably shouldn’t keep asking this, but...”

Gai’s eyes immediately filled with gentle concern.

“What troubles you, my dear?”

“Why me?” Yamato asked. “I’m not special. There have to be a hundred single people in Konoha more interesting or better looking than me.”

Gai raised his hand to cup Yamato’s face. His thumb brushed Yamato’s lower lip. “And I don’t want any of them. I want you. What does that tell you?”

“That you’ve lost your mind?” Yamato said, only half-joking.

Gai’s expression turned stormy, almost thunderous. “I have never, in all of my life, met a more worthy love interest, Yamato. You are utterly wonderful and I won’t hear anybody dismiss your many magnificent qualities, not even you!”

He had to smile at that. “Okay,” he said. “I can believe that you feel that way,” He stretched to place his teacup down on the low table. “I don’t know if I’ll ever understand it, but I believe it.”

“I supposed it is an acceptable start,” Gai said. His expression smoothed out and he leaned down to capture Yamato’s mouth in a soft kiss.

“Attractive,” Gai murmured when they broke apart before moving back in for more. “Generous.” Another kiss. “Kind.”

He continued on that way for far longer than Yamato was comfortable receiving such attention, alternating increasingly heated kisses with examples of what he saw as Yamato’s best qualities.

The physical part of the experience, Yamato was completely on board with. The praise, though, would take some getting used to.

He could only imagine that Gai intended to get him used to it as he continued with his list.

“Patient. Funny. Hard-working. Talented.” By that time Gai had pressed him onto his back and was mouthing at his throat. “Hospitable,” he murmured between slow licks over Yamato’s pulse point. “Intelligent. Spontaneous.”

“I was never spontaneous before I met you,” Yamato said.

Gai raised his head and grinned. “My youthful spirit is frequently inspirational.”

As he dipped back down to continue his ministrations, a timer rang in the kitchen. Gai sighed heavily.

“The clothes are dry.”

“Ah,” Yamato responded, disappointed but also a little relieved. His evening with Gai had been wonderful but it had also been a lot to process. A little time to himself to let it all sink in wouldn’t go amiss.

They separated reluctantly and Gai shortly presented Yamato with the warm, dry bundle of his clothes.

Yamato changed in the bedroom. It took longer than anticipated since he had to wait for his erection to die down first. As he folded the pajamas, he noticed, to his mortification, a small wet spot at the crotch.

Gai came to his rescue yet again as he shuffled out of the bedroom with the pajamas clutched to his chest.

“Please grant me the immense pleasure of keeping those pajamas,” he said warmly, rising from his seat. “You look so utterly fetching in them. It would warm my heart to imagine you wearing them at home.”

Yamato smiled. “Okay.”

“Would you like me to chaperone you home?”

Yamato’s smile widened. “I think I’ll manage, thank you.”

“That you are more than capable of protecting your fair self was never in doubt,” Gai said, mirroring his smile as he gently took hold of his shoulders. “It would, of course, only be for the company.”

“But who would walk you home from my place?” Yamato asked. “I’d have to come with you, and then we’d be right back where we started.”

A low laugh rumbled through Gai’s chest. “You’re right, it wouldn’t do.”

They shared a lingering kiss at the door. When they parted, Gai sighed and rested his forehead against Yamato’s.

“When may I see you again?”

“When do you want to see me?” Yamato asked.

“Immediately.”

Yamato grinned. “Lunch tomorrow?”

“I would be honoured.”

Yamato all but skipped home.

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut happens. Apparently I only know how to express emotions through sex so ENJOY

> **"Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year."**
> 
> _― Chad Sugg_

Gai came to Yamato’s door at precisely 12pm the next day. As per the rules of their challenge he had abandoned his usual attire and instead wore a deep blue three piece suit that he had further accessorised with a pocket square, fob watch and silk cravat.

Yamato gaped. “Where did you get that suit?”

“From my closet, of course!” Gai cheerfully replied.

Yamato narrowed his eyes in scrutiny, unsure if Gai was being his usual literal-minded self or whether he was as good at trolling him as Kakashi was. Gai looked back at him with a perfectly guileless expression.

Yamato decided he couldn’t be sure either way. “Where do you want to eat?” he asked instead of trying any harder to figure it out.

Gai’s eyes shone. “Since the weather is so glorious, I took the liberty of preparing a picnic!” From behind his back he pulled a giant wicker hamper that looked like it weighed as much as he did. “Let me see...we have sushi, sashimi, freshly pickled vegetables, miso soup…”

Yamato’s eyes bulged. “You made all of that? When?”

“This morning!” Gai deadlifted the hamper a few times and winked at Yamato. “I have been up since dawn!”

Yamato shouldn’t have been surprised. Gai definitely wasn’t the type to sleep in late.

“It sounds wonderful,” he said and noted the relief that flooded Gai’s smile. “Where shall we eat?”

They strolled through the village arm in arm. Yamato felt considerably underdressed in his jōnin blues next to Gai, but he also felt very proud to be at the side of such a dashing figure of a man. The stares that they attracted from other villagers were far more admiring than they were generally wont to be.

“Do you have any afternoon plans?”

“Gladly, I do not!” Gai beamed. “My youthful students are training alone today and there are no urgent missions that require my presence.”

“I see,” Yamato said lightly but felt his face heat up at the prospect of a whole afternoon (and evening, even night) with Gai. “I, ah. I don’t have any plans, either.”

They reached the forest by the south wall of the village and Gai led Yamato to a small clearing. “Especially lovely at this time of year,” he chattered as he spread a gigantic blanket over the grass and began to unpack the food. “I’ve always adored the wildflowers that grow here. There! See?”

Yamato followed his pointing finger to a patch of small white flowers dotted with slightly larger pink blooms.

“Oh, they are pretty.”

Faster than he could blink, Gai had sprinted to the flowers and plucked several. He bowed deeply and presented the bunch to Yamato.

“Beautiful blooms for a beautiful man,” he said and Yamato turned bright red.

“Th-thank you.”

Gai straightened, beaming, then noticed Yamato’s embarrassment and lowered his eyes. “I apologise. I am finding it difficult to restrain my ardour.”

Yamato shook his head quickly. “I don’t want you to hold back. I’m just not used to it.”

“To affection?” For a second Gai looked absolutely stricken. Then he took Yamato’s hand with purpose and pressed it to his chest. “In that case, please be assured that so long as this heart beats, you will never again go without such feelings!”

“Careful,” Yamato said with the beginnings of an uncontainable smile. “That could be an awfully long time.”

“I certainly hope so!” Gai exclaimed, then kissed Yamato’s hand with a loud smack.

Yamato ducked his head as the smile became a grin. “Shall we eat?”

“Ah! It is no use, you have me too fired up!” Gai bounced on the balls of his feet and shed his jacket and waistcoat to reveal the crisp white shirt beneath. “I must burn off some of this excess energy before I can settle down to our meal! If Yamato will permit me?”

Yamato blinked. “O-of course. What did you have in––”

With a whoop of joy Gai raced straight up the closest tree, leaving a trail of dust in his wake.

“––mind?” Yamato finished impotently.

It took five dashes, both up and down the tree, for Gai to feel worn out enough to eat. Yamato had laid out their meal while he waited and Gai clapped his hands together appreciatively.

“Itadakimasu!”

The food was excellent, and Yamato told Gai so. Gai waved off the praise. “It is nothing much. High quality, fresh ingredients are the key!”

“I’m not much for cooking,” Yamato said. “Honestly, what you’ve made is delicious. The rice is perfectly cooked.”

“Yamato-kun honours me with such unnecessary praise,” Gai mumbled. “But I am glad it is to your liking.”

Yamato ate until he was pleasantly full, during which time Gai ploughed through at least three times as much food.

“You must have a very high metabolism,” Yamato commented. “You’re always so active.”

“Indeed!” Gai gestured with his chopsticks. “And as for yourself? I cannot imagine that you train any less than I. We are both shinobi of the Leaf, after all!”

“I’m sure I train quite significantly less,” Yamato said playfully. “The kekkei genkai does most of the hard work for me, you know.”

Gai regarded him seriously. “I am certain that Yamato-kun does not rely solely on his jutsu. You bested me in our very first challenge, after all! You could never be so complacent.”

“You see right through me,” Yamato teased

“I would never presume,” Gai returned just as fondly. He then dabbed delicately at his mouth and started to pack away the last of the tableware. “Now! I propose that we rest in the shade of these magnificent trees to aid our digestion!”

“That sounds like an excellent plan,” Yamato said, already shuffling over to the nearest sturdy trunk. Gai soon followed and they settled side by side. Yamato offered his hand palm up and Gai took it with a brilliant smile. Shoulder to shoulder, they listened to the birds and insects and let the sunlight warm them.

Yamato was on the verge of drifting off to sleep when Gai’s lips brushed over his own. He let out a soft gasp and Gai retreated to kiss his forehead just as tenderly.

“Forgive me for disturbing your rest,” he murmured, large hands framing Yamato’s face, “but you looked...irresistible.”

“Do it again,” Yamato demanded, a challenge flashing in his eyes.

Gai smirked and he brushed another teasing, featherlight kiss over Yamato’s mouth.

Yamato reached for Gai impatiently, hooked the collar of his shirt and tugged him closer. He took Gai’s lower lip between his teeth and bit down lightly. The noise Gai made in response was close to a growl and the next thing that Yamato knew he had a lap full of shinobi.

Gai kissed him fiercely and it felt as though the dam had finally broken. The night before he had been holding back at least a little but he certainly wasn’t anymore, at least Yamato hoped not. Lord, if it got any more intense he didn’t think he’d be able to handle it.

Gai knelt with his thighs spread wide to bracket Yamato’s, crowding him up against the tree at his back as he devoured his mouth. His tongue pressed deep and he cradled Yamato’s jaw with one big hand, tilting his head to exactly where he wanted it. Yamato could only moan and try to keep up, kneading lightly at the corded muscles of Gai’s neck and shoulders. Apparently it was enough because Gai made another low noise and hauled Yamato up onto his knees, bringing them to the same height so that he could press their bodies flush together. He cupped Yamato’s ass firmly and Yamato squeaked around his tongue.

Gai’s hand retreated immediately and he broke the kiss, panting. “Too much?”

Arousal fluttered low in Yamato’s belly. Gai sounded flustered, a little wild, and it was because of him.

“No, no,” Yamato said quickly to prevent Gai from thinking that he wanted him to _stop,_ or something equally absurd. He swept a hand through Gai’s silky hair and Gai leaned eagerly into the touch. “How far were you planning to go?”

“I must confess, I didn’t plan for this at all,” Gai said, still a little breathless with his lips bare inches from Yamato’s. “You have quite a startling effect on my composure.”

“Good,” Yamato murmured and kissed him again, slow and wet, thrusting his tongue in and out of Gai’s hot mouth. Gai groaned and held him close, hands snaking back to his ass.

When he started to grind his hips in tight circles, Yamato broke away to gasp out his name.

“Yamato,” Gai returned, equally affected. He squeezed Yamato’s ass and spoke against his lips. “I would very much enjoy making you come in my mouth.”

Yamato almost choked.

Gai licked and kissed his way from Yamato’s throat to his ear, sucking on the lobe when he got there.

“May I?” he breathed, and there wasn’t a force on Earth that could have made Yamato deny him.

“Yes,” Yamato whispered.

Gai drew back far enough to look at him with heat before fastening his mouth to Yamato’s neck. He used his teeth lightly while his hands drifted over the hard planes of Yamato’s chest and Yamato moaned quietly as his nipples tightened under Gai’s fingertips

Gai kept one hand smoothing up and down his chest while the other dropped to his fly. When his knuckles grazed the bulge of Yamato’s erection, Yamato finally came to his senses.

“Wait!” he panted and Gai immediately stilled.

“What’s wrong, my love? Do you want me to stop?”

“No, God no, it’s just…” Yamato gestured vaguely. “Too open.”

Gai’s lips curled in a knowing smile. “I see.”

“But I can fix it,” Yamato said. He touched the tree at his back and a moment later roots sprang from the earth at Gai’s back. In less than half a minute they were shielded from all but the most dedicated observer as thick vines knitted to form a living wall around them. Gai watched the transformation with fascination and when it was done pulled Yamato into a hungry kiss.

“You. Are. Marvellous,” Gai murmured in between kisses and Yamato decided on the spot that it was his favourite of Gai’s eccentricities––more because of the kissing than the praise, but he had to admit that both were nice.

Now that they were obscured from view, Gai wasted no time in pushing Yamato’s pants off of his hips. He squeezed the hard length of his cock through his underwear and Yamato gasped and arched against the tree at his back.

“Please don’t be afraid to express yourself vocally,” Gai said, slowly tugging at him and studying his reactions with dark eyes. “I would be deeply gratified to hear you voice your pleasure.” With a quick self-deprecating grin he added, “What I hope will be your pleasure.”

“Do you want me to touch you?” Yamato asked, voice already strained as his cock twitched needily in Gai’s grip. He rocked unabashedly against the teasing hand, not to hurry things along but only because it felt good to do so.

Gai shook his head with a soft smile. “There will be time enough for that. Right now I want to focus on you.”

He was caught in a current of desire that promised to sweep him away into an ocean of dizzying sensation; in that moment Yamato couldn’t have been more willing to be lost at sea. He whimpered and Gai’s soft smile became a wicked grin. He returned to kissing Yamato’s neck as he freed his cock from the confines of his clothes. Gai’s thumb slipped over the leaking head, spreading the slick and gently exploring the dips and ridges until Yamato was panting and straining forward against his touch.

“Gai. Ah. Please.”

Gai claimed Yamato’s mouth and started to pump his hand along his shaft. His pace remained torturously slow. Yamato tangled both hands in Gai’s soft hair and thrust to meet his strokes.

“How does it feel, love?” Gai murmured against his jaw.

“Fantastic,” Yamato breathed and Gai’s laugh rumbled through him. He gripped Yamato’s cock tighter and gave him a few fast jerks that made his legs shake before resuming his teasing strokes, letting go completely on every upstroke before starting again at the base.

It felt so, so much better than jerking off alone and not only because Gai himself turned Yamato on so immensely. Gai was apparently exactly as prodigious at sex as he was at every other physical activity; his hands just seemed to know exactly how and where to touch to make every nerve ending spark, as if he were more familiar with Yamato’s body than Yamato was himself. Yamato couldn’t believe his luck as Gai sucked a path up his neck in sync with twists of his hand.

Suddenly Gai moved his hands to the creases of Yamato’s thighs and hoisted him. As his knees left the ground entirely Yamato realised with amazement that Gai was supporting his entire body weight on the palms of his hands. Gai hefted him as easily as if he were a doll, shifted his grip and then descended on his cock.

It was the most intensely arousing thing that Yamato had ever been blessed enough to experience. As his cock found a home nestled snugly between Gai’s lips Yamato realised, with some dismay and a lot of excitement, that he wouldn’t–– _couldn’t_ last more than two minutes under that kind of assault. Gai curled his tongue in a way that made his whole body shudder and a whine escaped his throat which would have embarrassed him if he’d had enough higher brain function left to experience embarrassment.

Gai drew off of his cock with a sinfully wet sound and smirked up at him and Yamato scrabbled at the rough bark of the tree behind him in desperate search of purchase. 

“Why don’t you make yourself comfortable, Yamato?” Gai said. “I intend to be here for a while.”

“Gai,” Yamato groaned weakly. “I won’t last that long. It’s so...you’re too... _Gai_.”

A pleased noise rumbled through Gai’s chest and he kissed the inside of Yamato’s thigh. “Even so. It would gratify me if you were to make yourself at home.”

Yamato sensed a deeper meaning behind Gai’s words and let his chakra flow through his hands and into the tree; the bark rippled and curved outwards to form a crude seat beneath him. Gai withdrew his hands to let him rest there and Yamato felt a pang of disappointment. He was no small man and for Gai to hold him off of the ground––while giving him the beginnings of a truly incredible blowjob, at that––had been almost unbearably erotic. He would have to tell Gai later how much he’d enjoyed it.

That thought caused a sudden shock to ripple through his mind like a slap of ice water to the face.

This was the third time that he had ever seriously interacted with Maito Gai and here he was, in the middle of a public forest with his pants down, getting his dick sucked. Yamato didn’t sleep with men that he’d just met. In fact, he’d rarely slept with anyone, male or female, at _all_.

Before Gai, there had been two women, one man and Kakashi (who really didn’t count––they had started to wank each other off one night during a particularly gruelling three week mission in the Land of Iron but quickly realised that neither of them were getting much out of it so aborted the attempt before completion). If Yamato were to count, he considered that he had had sex exactly seven times (definitely not including Kakashi): twice each with the women and three times with the man. Four of those seven times he had come from a blowjob and the other three during intercourse, of which he had been on the receiving end on one (enjoyable but also reasonably painful) occasion.

He realised that he was doing mental arithmetic _while getting his dick sucked_ and it was enough to kill his arousal almost completely. His erection started to wilt and he watched in horror as Gai’s brow knit into a confused frown.

“Yamato?”

“It’s not you, it’s really not you, I’m so sorry,” Yamato babbled.

Gai rested his warm hands on Yamato’s bare thighs and looked up at him calmly.

“Quite alright. I am not offended. But I suspect that we may need to talk about this.”

“Um.” Yamato dropped his hands to cover his bare lap. “Yes, probably.”

Gai kindly turned away to let Yamato drop from his makeshift seat and refasten his pants. Yamato dispelled his mokuton vines and Gai immediately moved further away as if his very presence was a disturbance.

Yamato followed him and touched his shoulder gently. "I'm really sorry. That wasn't––"

"I believe that I should be the one to apologise," Gai said. His voice was perfectly level but a faint red stain lingered over his cheekbones. "But let us put that to one side for now. Can you tell me what is wrong?"

Yamato rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah."

Gai smiled but it was a tight expression, designed to mask his own hurt in favour of reassuring Yamato. It was obviously unpractised as Gai’s sorrow was as clear as daylight behind the smile and Yamato felt a sick surge of guilt.

It would be difficult, maybe embarrassing, but he owed Gai his honesty.

"I guess…it was all moving a little too fast," Yamato said.

Gai let out a breath and his shoulders dropped. "I am sorry. I truly did not mean to rush you."

"You didn't," Yamato insisted. "You asked me if I wanted to and I said yes."

"I only endeavour to do what Yamato wishes," Gai said sadly.

Yamato swallowed. "We should sit down. Here."

He whipped through hand signs and a neat wooden bench rose from the ground. Gai flashed him a brilliant smile.

"As resourceful as ever, my dear."

Yamato liked it when Gai called him ‘dear’, or ‘love’. He liked it an awful lot. Nobody had ever called him such things before. He’d barely had a real name to use, let alone pet names. Hearing it made him feel warm deep inside.

Somebody cared so much, so quickly, simply because of who he was.

Yamato took Gai’s hand and led him to the seat. He smiled and tried to fight down the butterflies in his stomach while Gai waited patiently––anxiously––for him to elaborate.

“We...we hardly know each other,” Yamato hesitantly began. “We’ve been on one date. Maybe one and a half if the tea at my place counts. And I...I really like you a lot, Gai. It scares me how much.”

“Then you also feel it?” Gai asked.

“You mean...our chemistry?”

Gai nodded once and his dark eyes burned into Yamato’s like hot coals.

Yamato most definitely felt their chemistry. It had made him deeply uncomfortable at first but it had always been undeniable. Nothing could have kept him away from Gai after that first meeting and he knew it.

“Yes,” Yamato affirmed. “I feel it very strongly. That’s sort of the...well, I don’t want to call it a _problem_ , only, ah...I guess it’s that when I’m with you, I don’t really feel like I’m in control. I’ve been doing things I never thought I would. All of a sudden I’m a different person, somebody I don’t recognise.” Gai looked away from him, hurt, and Yamato hastened to add, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It actually feels really great. Spending time with you is incredible, it’s just––”

Yamato faltered. How to understand his own reticence, let alone explain it without hurting Gai?

“It’s just not...what I’m used to,” he finished finally, realising that he had used the phrase several times already since the start of their date the night before.

Gai stroked beneath his mouth thoughtfully. “I believe that I understand.”

“You do?” Yamato barely understood it himself, but he already knew that Gai was astute.

“Yes. I should have been more aware. But perhaps that is also a consequence of our, as you have said, barely knowing one another.”

“I want to know you,” Yamato said earnestly. “I really do. It’s just...everything all at once might be a little too much for me to handle.”

Gai sniffed and let go of his hand. His voice came quietly.

“You may find this difficult to believe, but I, too, have found myself burning in the flames of a passion I have hitherto not experienced. I am intensely drawn to you, Yamato. It is a feeling I have never known to have such potency. It has led me to be more forward than I would normally have intended.”

Yamato let out a breath he hadn’t realised that he was holding. “I’m glad to hear you say that.” He grinned self-consciously. “I understand that you’re more, ah, passionate than I am, but...wow.”

Gai studied his face carefully, a little guarded. “But we are still on the same page? That is, you would like to pursue a romantic relationship with me?”

Yamato nodded fast. “Definitely, yes.”

Gai’s grin lit up his face and it made him look five years younger. “In that case, I will move as slowly as Yamato desires. He is very worth waiting for.”

“Well, we don’t have to move _too_ slowly,” Yamato said, turning slightly pink. “We can still––”

Before he could finish Gai pulled him into a firm hug, pressing his face to Yamato’s shoulder and inhaling deeply. “I am most grateful that you have said so,” he mumbled. “I would certainly struggle to be around you without touching you.”

“I like it when we touch,” Yamato sighed against Gai’s neck then placed a soft kiss there. Gai’s hand smoothed up his back.

“Thank you for being honest with me,” Gai said. His tears were audible in his voice and Yamato felt them wetting his shirt. “I want to make you happy. I would like to believe myself capable––”

Yamato kissed Gai's neck again and again. "You make me very happy," he reassured him. "It just...happened so fast. I wasn’t prepared.”

Gai sniffed hard and shifted to press his face against Yamato’s chest.

“You are a gift,” he said, so quietly that Yamato almost didn’t hear him. When he processed the words his heart skipped.

“I’m sorry," he said thickly. "You shouldn't have to hold back for me."

Gai looked up at Yamato through a veil of tangled black hair. “People say that I can be intense. I must concede that it is an accurate descriptor.”

“It’s a good thing,” Yamato said, smoothing Gai’s hair back. “You put everything you have into everything you do. It's enviable; we should all do so much. I've never been so free as that. I don’t think I truly recognised how upright I can be until I met you.”

Gai’s eyes were wide and entreating. “I did have a thought,” he said, “if Yamato would care to hear it.”

“Of course.”

Gai straightened up and took both of his hands. Strands of his glossy hair stuck to his blotched red, tear-streaked face.

 _He's beautiful_ , Yamato thought. _Stupidly, wonderfully beautiful both inside and out. And he could be_ mine.

“Have you considered,” Gai said gently, “that perhaps you have never truly known who you are or what you enjoy?”

Yamato frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You have told me about your early years, as much as you were able to,” Gai said, stroking his fingers. “Since childhood you have been a soldier. I don’t believe that you have had much opportunity for friendship, romance or even casual interests to develop.”

“That’s normal for shinobi, though, isn’t it?” Yamato had meant it to be a statement, but it came out as a question.

What if he was wrong? What if, his entire life, he’d just assumed that everybody was the same as him? What if the truth was that––

“It is natural, perfectly natural and honorable, to be intimidated by new experiences,” Gai said. “That part of what you have expressed, I would not dream of denying. But the other…”

Yamato thought back on what he had said. “You mean when I said I’m a different person around you?”

Gai’s eyes lit up. “Perhaps––and I only say perhaps, I would never presume to know the innermost workings of my dearest Yamato’s heart––but suppose that this person that you say you don’t recognise has in fact been your true self all along. Perhaps you simply never had occasion to discover this side of yourself until now.”

Yamato’s breath caught in his throat. At the look on his face, Gai immediately backtracked.

“I have said too much. Once again I most humbly apologise for––”

“No, don’t,” Yamato said, eyes wide. “I never considered it, but…you're so smart, Gai.”

Gai turned red and grinned. “Ah, I am glad not to have made a fool of myself for once!”

“I mean it,” Yamato said and seized his hands again. “I was only thinking last night in the lake how much fun our challenge was and how I’d never had anyone to do things like that with before.”

“Then you enjoyed…?”

“I told you, didn’t I?” Yamato flashed his own wide grin. “You make me happy. Extremely, stupidly happy.”

Gai’s shoulders dropped, this time with relief. Fresh tears welled in his eyes.

“That is all that I desire, my sweet.”

Yamato wound his arms around Gai’s neck and kissed the tears from his cheeks.

“I really like you. Let’s not rush. I think slower could be...sexy.”

Gai’s mouth curved in a slow, smouldering smile. “To my eyes you are already as sexy as a person could be.”

Yamato snorted in disbelief and kissed Gai’s cheek again. “You’re sweet to say so.”

“Sweet,” Gai mused. “You think I’m sweet?”

“I think you’re a lot of things,” Yamato said, seizing the opportunity to lavish praise on his boyfriend––oh, and that was a dizzying word––as he had done to Yamato the previous evening.

“Sexy,” he said, and brushed his lips over Gai’s. “Strong.” A light kiss. “Genuine.” And another. “An optimist.”

Gai let out a sigh that whispered over Yamato’s mouth. “In the interests of taking things more slowly, I feel I must ask––”

“You don’t need permission to kiss me,” Yamato murmured, lips tantalisingly close to Gai’s.

“But still,” Gai whispered, then took his mouth softly. Yamato kissed him back and when he felt himself starting to drift on the waves of his desire, he didn’t try to fight it. He didn’t let it scare him.

He was safe with Gai, he knew. Safe to explore and to discover parts of himself that he had never known existed with the security that if it ever became overwhelming, Gai would allow him as much space as he needed.

At least, he thought with a mental smirk as Gai’s hands settled heavily on his shoulders, Gai would try his very best.

But maybe overwhelmed was okay when it was by feelings so delicious. Yamato parted his lips and edged his tongue along the seam of Gai’s mouth until the older man opened up for him with a low sound. Yamato wound his fingers into Gai’s hair and tugged lightly, encouraging him to tilt his head. He licked deep into Gai's mouth, drawing more pleased noises from him. His own heart was pounding hard as he enjoyed the kiss, enjoyed Gai. He broke the kiss only to breathe more easily, inhaling Gai's scent as he pressed his lips to the corner of his mouth before trailing them down to his throat.

“I’ve been neglecting all of this skin,” Yamato murmured in between lascivious drags of his tongue that made Gai’s fingers seize in the fabric of his shirt. “So bad of me.”

“Yamato is never bad,” Gai said on the edge of a groan. “Yamato’s mouth, in particular.”

“Oh? You like it?” Yamato grinned up at him and then closed his teeth around a patch of skin just below Gai’s jaw with enough pressure to make the other man shudder with want.

“I like it ever so much,” Gai breathed.

Yamato kissed Gai again with less restraint, running his fingers through Gai’s hair in a way that he hoped would let him know that he could let go a little more without scaring him off. Gai seemed to get the message, wrapping Yamato up tight in his arms and pressing his tongue into his waiting mouth. The angle on the bench started to get uncomfortable as they both twisted to face each other and Gai was the first to acknowledge it.

“Could we, perhaps, take this delightful kissing elsewhere?” he asked, punctuating the question with a peck to the tip of Yamato’s nose that made him smile. “I do not mean to push.”

“We definitely can,” Yamato said. “Did you have a suggestion?”

“Well, you are so clever with your wood release,” Gai murmured. “I hoped you might have an idea of your own.”

“I see,” Yamato said and stood. He was half-hard, he realised with a flush of embarrassment as he recalled their earlier position. He raced through the mokuton seals and pressed his palms to the same nearby tree from earlier. The crude seat, which still jutted awkwardly from the bark, reshaped itself slowly, smoothing out and flowing downwards to form a proper sculpted chair. Yamato judged that the height was right for him to sit with his legs around Gai’s waist should he want to do so (which, yes, he very much did). He wouldn’t know for sure, though, until he tried it.

Yamato hoisted himself into the seat and beckoned to his boyfriend. “Come here. Show me how you want me.”

Gai’s eyes darkened as he rose slowly to his feet. “That could be a very dangerous question, my love,” he said as he stalked over to plant himself between Yamato’s wide spread thighs.

With a palm on the mokuton, Yamato made adjustments to bring his seat a little higher, putting him at eye level with Gai.

“Here?”

Yamato’s breath burned in his lungs from the tension between them as Gai’s heavy stare pressed down on him. It wasn’t uncomfortable but rather inviting, like a blanket fresh out of the dryer or the smell of freshly baked bread, something warm that made his mouth water and his body crave to be touched. He wanted to wrap himself up in Gai and not surface for air.

The tension also had his dick fully hard again. Gai’s eyes flickered down to the obvious bulge and he licked his lips.

“Would Yamato consider allowing me to...make good on my earlier promise?”

He wanted Gai's mouth. Oh, he wanted it very much. A bright flash of anxiety ripped through him, though. He had wanted it before and then jolted himself out of the moment completely. What if it happened again?

Gai read his hesitation and shook his head quickly. His hands were warm weights on Yamato’s thighs. “I am sorry. I have overstepped.”

 _Fuck it,_ Yamato thought, throwing caution to the wind, _it’s not like we won’t end up doing this a week, a month down the line even if we do take it slow._

 _And he was very,_ very _good at it_.

Even more than his physical desire, though, was his understanding that he was already strongly committed to the fledgling relationship. He was committed to Gai and he felt the same from Gai in return. Whether they took things slowly or not, Yamato was all in and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this wasn’t going to be some flash in the pan fling or an attraction that would die once their bodies were sated. He and Gai had fierce chemistry, a connection with each other that went far deeper than physical attraction. Indeed, Yamato thought that their sexual desire for one another was so strong precisely because of the depth of feeling behind it.

He had felt something similar when he’d first met Kakashi (though not romantically) and their bond had certainly stood the test of time at ten years and counting since Yamato had first come under his command in ANBU. The feelings pulling him towards the silver-haired shinobi had been absolutely instrumental in leading him away from Root and from Danzo’s dark machinations. It was the first time that Yamato had trusted his gut instincts, the first time he'd even had such instincts to follow, and they had absolutely led him right. Kakashi was now his senpai, his comrade, his brother in all but name (awkward hand jobs aside) and as much as his bad qualities could be frustrating, Yamato would die for him in a heartbeat.

He knew in his heart that Gai would come to mean just as much, if not more, to him as Kakashi. It was terrifying, there was no denying that, just as encountering Sharingan no Kakashi for the very first time had been terrifying. But he’d gone on to follow Kakashi through Konoha’s streets, unbearably fascinated and completely incapable of forgetting about him. He had known that he and Kakashi were destined to be allies even then, years before Kakashi had ever spoken the word ‘friend’.

He and Gai may not have said the words––it really was far too soon for that––but Yamato knew that the path that they had started to walk together would lead to one inescapable destination.

That destination, of course, was love. And Yamato was desperate to give himself over to it.

“Gai,” he murmured, trailing a hand down Gai’s chest, managing to flick open the top two buttons of his shirt as he went. Gai’s face was flushed with desire as he leaned in to hear Yamato say the words. “I’d really like it if you did.”

 _I’d love it if you did_ , he thought.

“If Yamato is quite certain,” Gai said, his voice so low his words were almost a vibration alone. He touched his forehead to Yamato’s and slowly ran his hands up his thighs. His thumbs edged in towards Yamato’s arousal and Yamato swallowed thickly.

“Very certain.”

Gai’s nimble fingers found his fly and popped the button once more. “And you are quite alright with our surroundings?

“Quite alright,” Yamato confirmed. With his hands touching his created chair it was easy to coax another wall of vines to shield them.

“In that case,” Gai said, nuzzling up against the side of his face, “if Yamato would care to remove his pants, then I shall begin.”

 _How can that possibly be sexy?_ Yamato thought wildly as he raised his hips and let Gai tug down both his pants and underwear. They caught on his sandals and Gai flashed an embarrassed smile.

“Ah. The shoes.”

Gai bent to unzip them so that Yamato could kick them off; the rest of his caught clothing fell to leave him exposed on his wooden throne, nude from the hips down. Gai’s heated gaze dragged from his face down over his whole body in a way that, by all rights, should have made his skin crawl. Yamato had never been particularly proud of his body and with his shirt still on his chest––probably his best asset––was still covered. Any other time, with anybody else, he would have hidden his face at the idea of how ridiculous he must look.

But Gai wore that same expression from the previous night, the one that said he wanted to eat Yamato alive, and it made him feel…

Excited.

Sexy.

Bold.

“Do you like what you see?” Yamato heard himself say, sliding a hand up his stomach and bringing his shirt with it to expose more of his skin. Gai’s lips parted in surprise and his fingers twitched by his sides.

_Oh. He does like it._

Yamato peeled off his jōnin shirt, leaving him naked and halfway up a tree with a fully dressed man between his legs. A fully dressed man wearing a crisp white shirt and dress pants, no less. Gai’s eyes immediately fell to Yamato's newly revealed chest and his hands crept upwards slowly. Much too slowly.

“Don’t get shy on me now,” Yamato said and ran his fingers lightly up his own torso then stretched his arms up over his head, causing his back to arch. “You can touch.”

Gai’s palms smoothed from his collarbone downwards, catching his nipples and making him gasp in pleasant surprise. Seeing his positive response Gai repeated the touch again and again, edging a little lower with each pass until he was rubbing Yamato’s stomach and Yamato was squirming with want.

“Please tell me,” Gai said (and Yamato thrilled at the rough quality his voice had taken on), “please tell me if I do anything that is not to your liking.”

“I will,” Yamato said. “Now take off your shirt and come here.”

Gai quickly stripped and Yamato hummed as he took in the fine sight. He’d seen more of Gai’s body at the lake but he hadn’t taken the time then to truly appreciate it. Now his eyes roamed over the smooth curves of thick muscles, the line of dark hair down the centre of Gai’s chest, his tan skin, his flat stomach. Gai moved in and they kissed fiercely, tongues tangling as they tried to fit their mouths as close together as was physically possible.

Gai ran his hands all over Yamato's body, teasingly close to his stiff cock. Finally he took firm hold of it and Yamato groaned into his mouth. His nails dug slightly too hard into Gai’s shoulder and Gai broke away, breathing hard.

“Did you not want me to––”

“I want you to,” Yamato said, pushing up into his hand. “Please, Gai.”

Gai kissed him one last time, so deeply that it made him dizzy, then dropped heavily to his knees in front of him. He palmed Yamato’s inner thighs and breathed warm air over his shaft before licking him with a wonderfully wet tongue. Yamato let out a cry and bucked uncontrollably towards the point of contact. His lover didn’t wait any longer before taking the already slick head of Yamato’s cock between his lips. The tip of his tongue toyed with the slit and Yamato buried his hands in Gai’s jetty hair and gave himself over to pleasure.

Gai was a glorious tease. He first focused only on the tip of Yamato's cock, treating it to slow sucks while he gently massaged Yamato’s balls in one hand. Yamato writhed in his seat, desperate for more even as he never wanted it to end. Finally Gai opened his mouth wider and sank down achingly slowly until Yamato’s whole length rested on his tongue. Gai held still and looked up at him with his gorgeously dark, long-lashed eyes and Yamato let his head thud back against the tree trunk.

“Oh, Gai,” he sighed.

Gai drew all the way back just as slowly and let Yamato’s cock fall from his mouth. Holding him in a loose grip he swept his tongue up the underside three, four, five times in quick succession before swallowing him down again. Yamato panted and arched up towards his mouth. He might not have had much experience up until now but Gods, he’d never been blown like _this_.

He realised that his hands were fisted tightly in Gai’s hair and quickly let go for fear of hurting him. But oh, he needed to hold on to _something_ . He reached blindly upwards, vaguely channeling his chakra as well as he could until he'd formed a branch or a ridge–he couldn't have cared less what shape he’d made so long as he could wrap his hands around it and _pull_.

Gai sucked him languidly for a minute or two, bobbing his head easily while Yamato fought to keep his eyes open to watch. When Gai drew back again to lick and kiss––oh, _kiss_ ––the engorged head of his cock he couldn’t hold back his breathless, delighted laugh.

“Where the hell––ah!––the hell did you learn how to––oh God, _Gai_!”

Gai showed him a provocative smile then took him deep again. One of his hands wandered over Yamato’s body, sweeping over his thighs, teasing his sac, stroking over his twitching stomach. Yamato was twitching all over, in fact, hypersensitive and oh so blissful as his nerve endings fired in response to the sensual drag of Gai’s hot tongue.

On his next downstroke Gai took Yamato's cock all the way into his throat and swallowed around it and Yamato let out a strangled cry as his pleasure surged wildly.

“Oh, I’m going to––!”

Before he could finish the thought and just barely before his orgasm triggered Gai pressed his thumb hard against a spot just behind the head of Yamato’s cock. A shockwave juddered through him––slightly unpleasant, thoroughly distracting––and he gasped as he felt his immense pleasure ebb away to leave him still hard and wanting but no longer on the brink of release. Yamato stared down at his smirking boyfriend in amazement.

“Oh, you have _definitely_ taken lessons on this.”

Gai shook his head slowly, eyes gleaming.

“It’s a natural talent,” he said, then dropped his mouth to Yamato’s balls. He sucked one between his lips and Yamato yanked so hard on the branch in his hands that he could hear the sound of splintering wood.

Gai hummed wickedly around him and Yamato whimpered. “This isn't fair. How will I ever match this?”

Gai freed his mouth and looked hungrily up at Yamato.

“You don’t have any idea how immensely I am enjoying pleasuring you, my love,” he said.

Yamato dared to lean forward and look down past his own body. Gai had pushed his trousers down to his thighs and was slowly stroking his very stiff cock. The sight send a wave of heat through Yamato.

“Gai,” he pleaded. “Gai, come here.”

Gai gladly rose to his feet and they met once again in a ravenous kiss. As Gai pressed forward his cock dragged against Yamato’s and they both shuddered with want. Gai took them both in one big hand and started to stroke and Yamato groaned around his tongue.

Gai broke their kiss with a graze of his teeth over Yamato’s lower lip and looked down at where he was gripping them both.

“You may not believe…” he started, his voice low, rough and breathless. “I have never been the type to...you have inspired in me a…”

He seemed unable to complete a thought, too transfixed on their mutual pleasure. For someone as verbose as Gai it was a huge indicator of his excitement and it made Yamato’s toes curl with foolish pride.

He was doing that to Gai, making a mess of his thoughts and disrupting his control. _He_ was.

Yamato joined Gai’s hand with his own and Gai stared at him with wide, bright eyes. “Yamato,” he breathed, then kissed him again.

Gai worked his mouth slowly, thoroughly, tasting every corner. He sucked on Yamato’s lower lip then bit down on it. He licked over his teeth before angling his head and slotting their open mouths together. Yamato was completely powerless and he couldn’t have been happier.

“I want to come like this,” he whispered when they finally parted for air. “Just like this, Gai.”

An unlubricated handjob wouldn’t normally have been high on his list of desired sexual encounters but it wasn’t only the friction on his cock that was getting him off; it was all of Gai. His muscled body between Yamato’s thighs. His warm, wonderful mouth teasing over Yamato’s. His scent, the fresh sweat smell that Yamato had found oddly appealing the previous day. The low rumble of his voice when it came and his breathless silence in between words as he simply enjoyed their intimacy.

Gai’s free hand came up to sweep through Yamato's hair as he leant their foreheads together and just breathed with him, a signal of his compliance with Yamato’s request. He continued to stroke them both slowly, twisting his palm at the top of the upstrokes before trailing gently back down their lengths. Yamato realised he wasn’t adding much so instead pressed his palm to Gai’s sweat-damp stomach to feel the flexing muscles there. Gai dropped his mouth to Yamato’s neck and sighed against his skin.

Yamato felt himself drawing close to orgasm again. He was still worked up from Gai’s talented mouth, their spontaneity and surroundings, and his acceptance of how much the two of them already meant to each other. All of those things worked in combination to send intense pulses of pleasure through his body. As he surrendered to sensation he fumbled behind himself, found the handhold he’d made earlier and clung on for dear life. He writhed in his seat, arching into Gai’s firm grip.

“Ah. Yes, Gai.”

“Yamato,” Gai groaned into his neck as he started to move his hips in quick jerks against the strokes of his hand, the flared head of his cock bumping up against Yamato’s. Gai dragged his fingers down Yamato’s chest and then both of his hands were around their straining erections and they both clumsily rocked into the channel his fingers created.

The strokes were awkward, too dry and hideously uncoordinated. Yamato wouldn’t have thought it could ever be enough to bring him off but then Gai’s lips were on his, Gai was panting against his mouth as his hands tightened around them both almost painfully and somehow it was perfect. His cock throbbed against Gai’s as pressure coiled up fast from his gut.

“Yes,” Yamato gasped again, reaching upwards to meet Gai’s mouth with his own and tasting their combined sweat as he started to come.

His first pulse leaked over Gai’s fingers and eased the slide back down their lengths and Yamato let out a soft cry at the ecstatic feeling of release. He let out a second spurt of cum and then a third. Gai never stopped stroking as he broke their clumsy kiss to watch Yamato’s cock with delighted fascination.

Yamato groaned quietly as his orgasm passed. Gai continued to tug at both of their cocks, softer and slower now and avoiding the oversensitive head of Yamato’s. He was still achingly hard himself and Yamato kissed him lazily in between breaths.

“Can you come?” he asked, eyes now heavy-lidded and resting contentedly on his lover.

Gai gave a breathless laugh and ducked his head. “Yes, I do believe so. May I...stay here?”

“Please,” Yamato murmured, then wriggled a little on his wooden throne. “Just maybe stop...ah, it’s a little too…”

Gai took his meaning and let go of his softening cock to pump himself with one tight fist now slick with Yamato’s release.

The sight of Gai bare-chested, flushed with heat and jerking himself off with Yamato’s cum was a glorious one to behold. Yamato bit his lip before Gai bit it for him. Their tongues tangled again and Yamato’s head swam.

Yamato had never before imagined that he had it in him to engage in dirty talk––his previous sexual encounters had been quiet affairs––but as he listened to the wet sounds of Gai working himself over he wanted him to know exactly how fantastic the entire experience was for him. He pulled back from the kiss and curled his tingling legs around Gai’s hips, fencing him in and urging him closer.

“You’re incredible,” Yamato murmured. Gai’s eyes locked onto his with an urgency close to desperation flashing in their depths as he continued to speak. “You made me come so hard. You’re so sexy, Gai.”

Gai sucked in a breath and his cock jumped in his fist. Yamato smoothed both palms down Gai’s broad, solid chest. He scratched through the hair then moved lower to gently knead the slight curve of his waist.

“You look so good,” Yamato said. “I can’t wait for you to come all over me.”

Gai’s eyes glazed over and his cheeks flushed a darker shade of red. “Oh,” he groaned, hand working tight and quick over the head of his cock as he got close to climax. “You would really allow me to––”

“Please, Gai,” Yamato said, both hands tight on Gai’s hips. “Come for me.”

“My love,” Gai gasped out, shuddering as his orgasm took him over. “My life––oh!” He tipped his head back as the first streak of his release left him, his chest heaving as he painted Yamato’s lap with his cum.

Yamato bit his lip as Gai made an absolute mess of them both, his own cock stirring again as Gai came all over it. He hadn’t ever suspected he would enjoy such a thing. It felt filthy but also strangely romantic; to be surrounded by Gai, covered in his essence. Yamato grinned at the line of his own thoughts and Gai caught his eye and beamed brilliantly at him.

“That was, if I may say it, spectacular.”

“Utterly spectacular,” Yamato agreed, starting to laugh. “I didn’t even know sex could be that good.”

“I only apologise that it was so rushed,” Gai said and Yamato’s mouth fell open in disbelief.

“Rushed? That?”

Gai smiled fondly and leaned in close. “I would spend hours on your neck alone, my love. Hours more on your arms and on your chest. Every inch of your skin, I would take the proper length of time to adore.”

“I think I’d die,” Yamato replied and kissed Gai’s smile. “But it would be a great way to go.”

Gai curled his arms around Yamato’s neck. “I am not normally so public with my affections,” he said quietly, “but I found myself rather...overcome. You, my dear Yamato. You are...I do not have the words.”

“Yeah,” Yamato sighed, sticky and exhausted and blissfully content to stay just that way for as long as Gai was there with him. “I’m so glad we found each other.”

Gai hummed in agreement and satisfaction. He glanced absently to the side and suddenly jerked upright.

“Oh my Lord!”

Yamato sat up straighter, slightly alarmed. “What?”

“Look,” Gai breathed, and Yamato did. His eyes widened in astonishment.

“Oh.”

In the woods all around them, every bit of grass had sprung into bloom. The clearing was transformed into a meadow as irises nestled up against buttercups and red camellias tangled with snowbells. Plum and cherry blossom petals drifted down from the trees in a delicate shower that filled the air.

“Did you do this?” Gai asked in an awed whisper.

“I...I don’t think so,” Yamato stammered. “At least, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know I _could_.”

Gai slowly turned back towards him. He wordlessly took both of Yamato’s hands and raised them reverently to his mouth.

Then he burst into tears.

✽✦✽✦✽

Yamato could feel Kakashi’s half-lidded eye resting on him as they both sat in the circle of wooden totems.

“Stop it.”

Outside the circle, Naruto was working on his chakra manipulation. There hadn’t been an issue with the kyuubi’s chakra for weeks, but they weren’t willing to take the risk of being unprepared.

Kakashi stood from the bench he had insisted Yamato make for him (Yamato, as always, too polite to refuse) and ambled over to the other jōnin. He flopped to the ground and bumped Yamato with his shoulder.

“Don’t,” Yamato said.

“I haven’t said anything,” Kakashi replied innocently.

“You’re thinking it too loudly,” Yamato said.

Kakashi draped an arm around his shoulders and continued to stare at him until he sighed. “Whatever this is about, just say it, would you?”

He’d known Kakashi for enough years to be able to discern his leer even through the mask.

“How was he?”

“For God’s sake,” Yamato hissed, glancing over at Naruto.

Kakashi arched his silver eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

Yamato thought about denying his involvement––and goodness, what involvement––with Gai, but realised, with a touch of warmth, that he didn’t want to. Not at all.

He smirked through his blush of embarrassment and snapped back at Kakashi. “He was better than you, that’s for sure.”

“Maa, you caught me on a bad day,” Kakashi said mildly, then his eye narrowed. “Tenzō. You just insulted your senpai.”

“It couldn’t be helped,” Yamato said, choosing to ignore the misnaming for the time being. “You’re very easy to insult.”

In a flash there was a kunai at his throat and Kakashi’s grey eye had become very dangerous. “Who are you and where is Yamato?”

“Kakashi,” he laughed. “It’s me. Honestly.”

Kakashi didn’t look convinced. He glanced over to make sure Naruto was sufficiently distracted. “Then it wouldn’t surprise you if I did this.”

With his non-kunai hand he tugged down his mask, flashed Yamato a wink and then pulled it back into place.

Yamato looked back at him, unmoved. “Cute. Can you drop the blade, please?”

Kakashi put the weapon away, still eyeing his friend with a touch of suspicion and a lot of surprise. “You seem different,” he said.

A soft smile stole over Yamato’s face. “I think I’m actually happy,” he said.

“So quickly,” Kakashi marvelled as he looked fondly at his kōhai, finally convinced that he hadn’t been replaced by an enemy nin with a very good henge.

“Well, you know Gai,” Yamato said.

Kakashi didn’t respond for a long moment as he held Yamato’s eye.

“I’m really happy for both of you,” he said eventually with a weight of sincerity in his tone that Yamato didn’t often hear. “You very much deserve it.”

Yamato beamed. “Thank you, senpai.”

**Author's Note:**

> Join the [Tenzō's Cabin Discord](https://discord.gg/Ng4teJ6yNP), a friendly community for writers, artists and all Tenzo lovers :)


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